


When the Moon Reveals Their Face

by FeralScribe



Series: Widomauk Week 2019 Prompts [14]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Autistic Caleb Widogast, Don’t copy to another site, First Date, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Mollymauk Tealeaf, Minor Gender Dysphoria, Mollymauk in a Dress, Online Friendship, Other, Widomauk Week, widomauk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralScribe/pseuds/FeralScribe
Summary: After months of talking online, Caleb and Molly are about to meet face-to-face for the first time. However, they've never even seen pictures of each other, and there's something Molly hasn't told Caleb about how they look...





	When the Moon Reveals Their Face

Caleb nervously taps his feet on the ground. The repetitive motion and sound helps to ground him. He clutches his little toy cat, Frumpkin, to add a tactile element. He is sitting at his desk with a chat window open. The profile picture of the other person is, as it has been since they started talking, a crescent moon with two stars above it to make a smiley face. Caleb has never seen their real face before. They have spoken on the phone a few times — which, given Caleb’s autism and general anxiety, is a testament to how much he likes this person — but they have both expressed discomfort with sharing their pictures online. Mollymauk has never seen Caleb’s face either.

And yet Caleb just sent them a message asking if they could go see a movie together sometime. The rest of their online chat group, which met in a _Legends of Vox Machina_ fan server, lives too far apart from each other, but Caleb and Molly live within driving distance. However, despite knowing this, they’ve never actually hung out anywhere but online or over the phone.

 _I think I’m ready to meet you in person, if you’re comfortable with that_ , Caleb’s message said. _We both wanted to see the new Honey Heist_ _movie, so maybe we could go together?_

He sent that message as soon as he saw that Molly was online. His own profile picture, a stylized sun with “Shine Bright” written across it, stares back at him as though encouraging him. To take his mind off the fact that Molly didn’t respond right away, Caleb scrolls up through their more recent conversations. They’ve both agreed they like each other. Molly knows Caleb is autistic and Caleb knows Molly has occasional gender dysphoria, and they’ve been supporting each other through tough times for the past couple months. Caleb texts Molly when he’s in sensory overload so Molly can send him relaxing gifs that he’s too frazzled to look up himself. Molly texts Caleb on the days when they hate their body so Caleb can offer them digital hugs. Molly lets Caleb ramble about his special interests, like astronomy and cats and languages, even when they’re talking on the phone. Caleb likes hearing Molly’s wild stories from their job as a bartender.

The minutes tick by and still no answer from Molly. Caleb’s anxiety is picking up, the paranoia that he either did something to make Molly hate him or that Molly has been catfishing him this whole time. Either way he would lose one of the few people he can call a friend. It wouldn’t be the first time someone he trusted and cared about had strung him along for their own amusement then kicked him to the curb when it wasn’t fun anymore. Caleb tries not to think about his old “friends” from the Academy because otherwise he’s going to cry.

It’s not his fault he can’t tell when someone is emotionally abusing him, at least that’s what Molly told him. If someone acts friendly to him he only sees it as being friendly; it never even crosses his mind that they’re laughing behind his back. At least, it never _did_. These days he worries that’s what everyone is doing when they’re nice to him. Oh Gods what if that _is_ what Molly has been doing? What if they’ve been gaining his trust all these months for some elaborate prank? What if—

The chat window chimes to announce Molly’s reply. Caleb hastily scrolls back down to read it.

**Mollymaurvelous**

_Hey!_

_Sorry. Was grabbing a snack._

Caleb is all worked up now. He doesn’t know if Molly is telling the truth. He wants this friendship to be real so badly. It has been years since he was this comfortable with a person. He rubs Frumpkin’s ear between his thumb and forefinger. Concentrating on the velvety material brings him ever-so-slightly out of his anxiety attack. He stares at the screen and waits for an answer to his question. Thirty seconds pass. A minute. Two minutes. Caleb taps his feet on the ground.

_I’d love to go see a movie with you :)_

_But…_

Caleb sets Frumpkin down on his lap so he can type.

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_…but?_

It takes another minute for Molly to answer.

**Mollymaurvelous**

_But…I don’t think you’d want to be seen in public with me._

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_What? Why not?_

_Are you having another bad-body day?_

**Mollymaurvelous**

_Heh. Kinda._

_Um…_

_Remember how I told you guys that I’m a quarter-elf?_

Oh no. Here comes the truth. Molly has been lying to him this whole time. Caleb clutches Frumpkin and types with his other hand.

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_Yeah?_

**Mollymaurvelous**

_Well I am_

_It’s just…_

_I’m a quarter-elf because my mom was a half-elf and my dad is a tiefling_

_So…_

_People tend to avoid me_

Caleb takes a moment to process this confession. Tieflings are fairly rare in this part of the continent. Caleb sees one or two around town and they never bother anyone. He hears about people being mean to tieflings sometimes, like they’re mean to half-orcs and goblins. He would never be mean to Molly just because they’re a tiefling.

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_Oh_

**Mollymaurvelous**

_Do you hate me now?_

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_No!_

_No way, Molly_

_But a few things make sense now_

_Does being a tiefling make your dysphoria worse?_

**Mollymaurvelous**

_Sometimes, yeah :/_

_My mom was really pretty and I wish I could look like her sometimes_

Caleb knows about Molly’s mom. Molly mentioned her when their friend Fjord admitted he was an orphan. She died when Molly was a teenager, though Molly never specified how, only that they lived with their dad ever since and their dad wasn’t thrilled with having a queer child, but according to Molly he loved their mom enough that he wasn’t cruel to Molly.

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_I’m sorry, Molly_

**Mollymaurvelous**

_I’M sorry_

_I should have told you before_

_but no one has wanted to be my friend in a long time and everyone in the group chat was so nice to me but I didn’t want to scare them away so I just didn’t tell anyone_

_then I was afraid that if people knew the truth they’d think I’d been lying to them and they would get mad at me_

Caleb rubs Frumpkin’s ear. It _is_ so easy to lie online. He wants to believe Molly, but the part of him that has been hurt by liars before tells him to be wary.

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_Can I call you?_

At the very least, he can try to pick up on some vocal cues.

**Mollymaurvelous**

_Yeah, but I gotta get ready for work soon_

**xHeliophilicxWidocatx**

_okay :3_

A minute later, Molly picks up the phone. “Hey,” they say. They sniffle, but try to play it off as a cough. Caleb has studied people enough to recognize that. “So are you mad?”

“No, Molly, I’m not mad. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

Molly chuckles. “What? Did you think someone had hacked my account?”

“No, I just— I’m having one of those paranoia days where I feel like I can’t trust anyone.”

“Well, I promise I really am a tiefling. Horns and tail and everything. If you really do want to see the new _Honey Heist_ with me you’d notice them pretty quick. I understand if you’d rather not, though.”

“ _Doch_. Er, I still want to. Yes. In fact I want to even more now because I’m curious.”

“Hmm…” Molly sounds distracted.

“…Are you okay?”

“Hang on, I’m sending you a picture, but I have to take it first.” There’s a pause on their end, followed by, “Okay, you should get that in a second. Something to prove I’m not lying to you.”

Caleb’s phone vibrates in his hand. “Got it. Hold on…” He opens the new message.

It’s a picture of a lavender-skinned hand waving to the camera. “Hi Caleb!” is written on the palm in pen. From the angle, it looks like the hand belongs to whoever took the picture. That sort of thing is easy to stage, but Caleb tells himself that this is too elaborate to be a ruse. He’s not worth putting so much effort into a trick for.

“Molly? You still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Your skin is a nice color.”

A pause. “Thank you.”

“I’m free for a Saturday matinee if you are.”

Molly lets out a breathy chuckle. “Yeah, I’m not working until five, so anything around lunchtime works for me.”

Caleb smiles. “Good. I really want to see this with you. I like hearing your laughter on the phone and it will be nice to hear it in person.”

“Aww, Caleb…”

The two of them finalize their plans. They’ll meet at the coffee shop near their local theater half an hour before the movie starts. Molly keeps reminding Caleb that he can back out at any time. Caleb usually leaps at the opportunity to stay home from social gatherings, but he wants to finally know what Molly looks like, and he does want to hear their laugh and maybe even hold their hand. Physical affection is another one of those things that scares him despite the fact that he wants it so much. His old “friends” used to take advantage of his willingness to hug or playfully touch people and use it to punch him or pin him down or put him in uncomfortable situations. He would let Molly touch him though; he would even let them hug him.

Once everything is settled, there’s just one problem: Caleb hates waiting. He spends the next few days counting down the hours until his date with Molly. They text each other a few more times before then, but Caleb wants to see them in person. He can barely hold still. Every chance he gets he flaps his hands and taps his toes to disperse the pent-up energy trapped inside him like a star getting ready to go supernova from excitement.

Saturday arrives and now Caleb is counting down the minutes. He has his outfit all picked out, but there’s one thing he can’t decide on yet. He goes to ask Molly what they think and notices that he has an unread message from them. Judging from the timestamp he must have been eating breakfast when they sent it.

_Hey. I’m feeling femme today. Is that alright with you?_

Caleb feels terrible for not seeing this sooner. He’s usually so compulsive about checking his phone, and yet this message has been sitting there for nearly half an hour. He writes back right away.

_Whatever you feel comfortable with! Speaking of which, is it alright if I bring Frumpkin?_

There’s no immediate response, which is understandable, but Caleb still frets that maybe Molly thinks he was ignoring them and now they’re sad. He doesn’t want Molly to be sad.

A few minutes later they send him a response. _Sure! I’d love to meet him too :D_

Caleb scoops up Frumpkin on his way out. He usually takes the stuffed cat with him to new places because having something familiar there makes him less nervous. He also makes sure to grab the piece of paper with his profile picture printed on it. They agreed that whoever got to the coffee shop first would put their picture on the table so the other would know it was the right person.

Due to his impatience, Caleb gets there fifteen minutes before they agreed to meet. He orders a simple hot chocolate and waits. The time stretches out as he continuously cycles between checking his phone and watching the door. His breath catches and his heart races when a tiefling enters the shop.

Even without the print-out of the familiar crescent moon smiley face in their hands or the unmistakably tiefling horns and purple skin, Caleb immediately recognizes Molly because of their tattoos. It’s the one personal picture they ever posted in the group chat: their sleeve of ink flowers and feathers and scales. The upper half of their tattoo is currently hidden under their burgundy bolero cardigan, which they have on over a cute embroidered dress. The skirt hangs loosely down to their knees and the white fabric is alive with colorful flowers and butterflies. They’re wearing basic makeup, just a bit of rosy color on their lips and plum eyeshadow that Caleb only notices when they blink their bright red eyes.

Caleb waves, Frumpkin in one hand and the other pointing to his own printed profile pic. “ _Hallo_ ,” he says.

Molly smiles and walks faster in his direction. Their dress billows around their legs from the added haste. “Caleb?” He nods. They smile. “Hi! Oh wow, we’re here. This is happening.”

“ _Ja,_ I can’t believe it either, but...here we are.” Caleb tries to think of a good compliment. There’s so much he could comment on and he’s not sure what the right thing to start with is. “You— You are—“ He curses his mind for freezing up and forgetting how to talk at such a crucial moment. He squeezes Frumpkin. What would the cat want to say to Molly right now? “I like your dress. It looks very good on you.”

“Yeah?” Molly says with a bashful grin. Their tail flicks under the skirt, making it flair out. “Thank you. It’s my favorite.”

“You’re very beautiful.” Caleb hears what he said two seconds after it leaves his mouth. “ _It’s_ beautiful. Sorry. I mean, you are too, but I— I— Nghh...” He uses Frumpkin to cover his face. “I was trying to say ‘You’re welcome’ and ‘It’s very beautiful’ at the same time.”

Molly laughs, but they sound nervous, not mocking. “It’s okay, I trip over my words all the time.” They fiddle with the strap of their handbag. “Do I really look pretty?”

“ _Ja. Ja_ _natürlich_. You look wonderful.” Caleb realizes he has been staring at Molly’s eyes too long. He sometimes forgets the acceptable amount of time you’re supposed to make eye contact with a person. Hopefully Molly won’t think he was staring at their eyes because he doesn’t like them. He likes them very much. They’re a nice color and while he has to focus to see which direction the irises are pointing, Molly has an otherwise expressive face that’s easy for him to read. Oh no, he’s still staring. He quickly looks away. He holds up Frumpkin with both hands. “This is Frumpkin,” he says. He wiggles his finger under one of Frumpkin’s arms to make him wave.

“Hello there, Frumpkin,” Molly says. They gently shake Frumpkin’s paw. “Nice to finally meet you.” Turning their attention back to Caleb they say, “Is it okay if I shake your hand too?”

Caleb nods. He knew he would like it when they touched him, but their palm feels so good against his own, and their fingers don’t grip him too tight. His whole arm tingles. He blurts out, “Also you smell good.” More sheepishly he adds, “Er, and I don’t just mean your deodorant, which also smells good, but under that you smell good.” He winces. “Sorry, I um…I can smell…er…a lot, and…and you smell…good.” Well now he’s gone and made it weird. He braces himself for the backlash.

However, Molly smiles. “Thank you. I didn’t want to stink if we were going to be sitting next to each other for a while. Speaking of which, do you want to grab seats this early or should we get something to eat first?”

“Um, whatever you want to do.”

“Well, I could do with a muffin. I’ll buy you one too if you want to buy the popcorn?”

“Sure. Thank you.”

They sit and eat for a few minutes until it’s time to go buy tickets. Molly does get some odd looks from people, but then again so does the grown man holding a cat plushie. Caleb is used to ignoring people who think he’s weird, so it’s not much of a stretch to ignore people who think Molly is weird. He doesn’t think they’re weird. He thinks they’re great.

The movie is nearing the end of its theatrical release, so the seats aren’t packed. Molly and Caleb get good seats on the aisle near the middle, each with a bag of popcorn and a drink that they set on the outer arms of their chairs.

Molly takes Caleb’s hand in theirs. They smile at him. “I’m glad you invited me out.”

Caleb smiles back and squeezes Frumpkin under his other arm. He wants to tap his feet from how happy he is that Molly is holding his hand. “Me too.”

The trailers finish and the movie starts. By the end, Molly and Caleb have their arms linked as well as their hands. Caleb even rests his head on Molly’s shoulder. They don’t shove him or get upset with him, and being closer means he gets to hear them laugh better. He knows that when he gets home and replays all this in his head, he’s going to flap like crazy. For the time being, he is calmed by the desire to simply be here with Molly. It’s a nice place to be. Hopefully they’ll get to do things like this a lot in the future. It feels so good to finally have a friend.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leaves kudos and comments, and if you want to support my work even more you can find me on Ko-fi under the same name!


End file.
